The Bird and the Sword

The Bird and the Sword
Author: Amy Harmon
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016-05-06
Genre: Daughters
ISBN: 9781533134134

"'Swallow, daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them 'til they've time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, 'til the hour. You won't speak and you won't tell, you won't call on heaven or hell. You will learn and you will thrive. Silence, daughter. Stay alive.' The day my mother was killed, she told my father I wouldn't speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would trade his soul and lose his son to the sky. My father has a claim to the throne, and he is waiting in the shadows for all of my mother's words to come to pass. He wants desperately to be king, and I just want to be free. But freedom will require escape, and I'm a prisoner of my mother's curse and my father's greed. I can't speak or make a sound, and I can't wield a sword or beguile a king. In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left, and who could ever love ... a bird?"--Back cover.

The Queen and the Cure

The Queen and the Cure
Author: Amy Harmon
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017-05
Genre: Amnesia
ISBN: 9781545391778

Publication information from Amazon.com.

Swordbird

Swordbird
Author: Nancy Yi Fan
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2007-02
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0061130990

Warring factions of blue jays and cardinals call on Swordbird, the heroic bird of peace, to rescue them from the evil machinations of Turnatt, the tyrant hawk lord who plans to enslave them.

The Bird King

The Bird King
Author: G. Willow Wilson
Publisher: Grove Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2019-03-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0802146848

One of NPR’s 50 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of the Decade: A fifteenth-century palace mapmaker must hide his powers in the time of the Inquisition . . . Award-winning author G. Willow Wilson’s debut novel Alif the Unseen was an NPR and Washington Post Best Book of the Year and established her as a vital American Muslim literary voice. Now she delivers The Bird King, an epic journey set during the reign of the last sultan in the Iberian peninsula at the height of the Spanish Inquisition. Fatima is a concubine in the royal court of Granada, the last emirate of Muslim Spain. Her dearest friend, Hassan, the palace mapmaker and the one man who doesn’t leer at her with desire, has a secret—he can draw maps of places he’s never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan’s surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan’s gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule. With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls? As the two traverse Spain with the help of a clever jinn to find safety, The Bird King asks us to consider what love is and the price of freedom at a time when the West and the Muslim world were not yet separate. “Wilson has a deft hand with myth and with magic, and the kind of smart, honest writing mind that knits together and bridges cultures and people.” —Neil Gaiman, author of Norse Mythology “A triumph . . . one of the best fantasy writers working today.” —BookPage “A treasure-house of a novel, thrilling, tender, funny, and achingly gorgeous. I loved it.” —Lev Grossman, author of the Magicians trilogy

The Bird and the Blade

The Bird and the Blade
Author: Megan Bannen
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2018-06-05
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 006267417X

A sweeping and tragic debut novel perfect for fans of The Wrath and the Dawn and Megan Whalen Turner. This young adult novel is an excellent choice for accelerated tween readers in grades 7 to 8, especially during homeschooling. It’s a fun way to keep your child entertained and engaged while not in the classroom. The Bird and the Blade is a lush, powerful story of life and death, battles and riddles, lies and secrets from author Megan Bannen. Enslaved in Kipchak Khanate, Jinghua has lost everything: her home, her family, her freedom . . . until the kingdom is conquered by enemy forces and she finds herself an unlikely conspirator in the escape of Prince Khalaf and his irascible father across the vast Mongol Empire. On the run, with adversaries on all sides and an endless journey ahead, Jinghua hatches a scheme to use the Kipchaks’ exile to return home, a plan that becomes increasingly fraught as her feelings for Khalaf evolve into an impossible love. Jinghua’s already dicey prospects take a downward turn when Khalaf seeks to restore his kingdom by forging a marriage alliance with Turandokht, the daughter of the Great Khan. As beautiful as she is cunning, Turandokht requires all potential suitors to solve three impossible riddles to win her hand—and if they fail, they die. Jinghua has kept her own counsel well, but with Khalaf’s kingdom—and his very life—on the line, she must reconcile the hard truth of her past with her love for a boy who has no idea what she’s capable of . . . even if it means losing him to the girl who’d sooner take his life than his heart.

The Boy, the Bird and the Coffin Maker

The Boy, the Bird and the Coffin Maker
Author: Matilda Woods
Publisher: Scholastic UK
Total Pages: 139
Release: 2017-05-04
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1407179535

Alberto lives alone in the town of Allora where fish fly out of the sea and everyone knows everybody's business. There he makes coffins for the great and small, but being the only coffin maker in town can be lonely. That is until a little boy and a magical bird enter his life and change it forever.

Soulswift

Soulswift
Author: Megan Bannen
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 480
Release: 2020-11-17
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 006267420X

A dark, epic fantasy about a girl who must rethink everything she believes after she is betrayed and hunted by the religion that raised her—from Megan Bannen, author of The Bird and the Blade. Perfect for fans of The Winner’s Curse and The Girl of Fire and Thorns. Gelya is a Vessel, a girl who channels the word of the One True God through song. Cloistered with the other Vessels of her faith, she believes—as all Ovinists do—that a saint imprisoned Elath the Great Demon centuries ago, saving humanity from earthly temptation. When Gelya stumbles into a deadly cover-up by the Ovinists’ military, she reluctantly teams up with Tavik, an enemy soldier, to survive. Tavik believes that Elath is actually a mother goddess who must be set free, but while he succeeds in opening Her prison, he inadvertently turns Gelya into Elath’s unwilling human vessel. Now the church that raised Gelya considers her a threat. In a race against the clock, she and Tavik must find a way to exorcise Elath’s presence from her body. But will this release stop the countdown to the end of the world, or will it be the cause of the earth’s destruction? And as Tavik and Gelya grow closer, another question lingers between them: What will become of Gelya?

The Sword

The Sword
Author: Lisa Deutscher
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2019
Genre: Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN: 1783274271

A multidisciplinary overview of current research into the enduringly fascinating martial artefact which is the sword.

Daughter of the Sword

Daughter of the Sword
Author: Steve Bein
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2013-09-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 045141635X

As the only female detective in Tokyo's most elite police unit, Mariko Oshiro has to fight for every ounce of respect, especially from her new boss. But when he gives her the least promising case possible, the attempted theft of an old samurai sword, it proves more dangerous than anyone on the force could have imagined. Mariko's investigation has put her on a collision course with a curse centuries old and as bloodthirsty as ever. She is only the latest in a long line of warriors and soldiers to confront this power, and even the sword she wields could turn against her.

A History of Birds

A History of Birds
Author: Simon Wills
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2017-11-30
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 152670157X

“Intriguing stories from the history of the human relationship with birds, including their symbolism in art, literature, religion, and folklore” (Booklist). Even the most well-informed wildlife enthusiast will be entertained by the stories and fascinating facts in this beautifully illustrated book. Our ancestors hunted, tamed, worshipped, and depicted birds, and even bestowed magical properties upon them. Why did ancient writers consider the sparrow a lustful creature? Which bird was killed and hung up to predict the weather? And what was an “arse-foot?” Wildlife photographer and history journalist Simon Wills explores the intriguing and at times bizarre stories behind our relationship with birds. Find out why robins feature on Christmas cards, and how Mozart was persuaded to keep a pet starling. What bird did Florence Nightingale carry around in her pocket? How did the blue tit get its name? Whole careers have been created around birds—from falconers to ostrich farmers—and birds have had great symbolic importance too. Discover, for example, why Raleigh bicycles carry a heron logo and why church lecterns are in the shape of an eagle. If you enjoy wildlife, then this book is full of surprises. Pigeons were trained to carry messages in wartime, but could gulls be taught to hunt U-boats? And which American president’s parrot started swearing at his funeral? “A pleasing and often illuminating book with many examples of historical connections with birds, from Queen Victoria’s parrots and the Prince of Wales’s feathers to Kellogg’s cockerel and recipes for flamingos.” —Bird Watch